Drinking

BACK TO THE PRESENT

"I see," Wu Zhitian uttered.

Feng Yi blinked confusedly, trying to comprehend what Wu Zhitian had just said as he watched him grab a vacant sword that lied in the room's corner.

Wu Zhitian slashed the air and a large gust of wind penetrated the ground, piercing forwards to the two figures. Luckily, the bodyguard swiftly stepped in front of Liu Bu and intercepted the slash, deflecting it with his sword.

"You! You! Attacking me is the same as breaking off the contract!" Liu Bu exclaimed, with his legs trembling from the attack.

"I am breaking the contract," Wu Zhitian said.

"Oi, oi, oi. Are you actually being serious?"

The white-clad cultivator raised his idle palm and held it towards the two as spiritual energy accumulated around his fingers.

The bodyguard raised his arm, pointing his sword downwards and prepared to block the attack as a firm blast of wind exploded from his palm, ultimately busting both of them through the wall. The entire room shook and swayed from the sudden explosion, which resulted in half of the room collapsing.

Even with the potent force, Liu Bu's bodyguard still maintained his defensive posture, only faltering slightly because of his firm base. Sadly, Liu Bu had collapsed onto his bottom shamelessly.

When the wall blasted down, Wu Zhitian didn't expect to see Yu Xuelan and Wu Ming standing idly outside. His aggravated feelings instantly faded and were drenched in worry that he might have hurt them.

Luckily, Yu Xuelan had protected Wu Ming from the impact of the force. When their eyes locked with one another, Yu Xuelan lifted the corners of her lips and waved happily, completely ignoring the two men who rolled out of the room and into the wall that blew off into pieces.

Liu Bu glanced up and noticed the girl and boy standing beside them. Shortly, a vicious smirk smeared across his face.

He instantly sprung up and snatched the black-robed girl, cuffing her neck under his arms with his fan pointed under her chin.

"Move one bit and I'll kill this woman! Now drop your weapons!" He warned.

Yu Xuelan, "???"

"Lin-shijie!" Wu Ming yelled.

While Yu Xuelan was laughing in her head about how many chaotic situations she'd gotten herself into, she noticed that the moment Liu Bu cuffed her under his arm, the commandment note in her sleeve fluttered.

It was just a suspicion at first, but Liu Bu's name was labelled as the seller on Lin Yuhe's slave documents, so he was on Yu Xuelan's list of suspects. Yet she didn't know they would bump into each other so fast.

Wu Zhitian instantly discarded the sword and glowered at Liu Bu, provoking him to laugh hysterically like he had just won a war.

He grinned at the white-clad boy and yelled, "KILL THEM ALL-"

Yu Xuelan dug her teeth into Liu Bu's rough skin, causing blood to trickle down his arm as she licked the blood that stained her lips.

Liu Bu shrieked and subconsciously swung his fan towards her face. The fan hardened, transforming into a sharp metallic blade.

Before it could pierce her face, Yu Xuelan gripped onto the blade with her bare palms to divert the direction of the weapon. Only with the sacrifice of the blade slicing deeply into her palm.

Blood gushed down her wrist and dripped past her arm. Seeing as how Liu Bu was bewildered, she took this chance to force herself away from Liu Bu's clutch.

As Wu Zhitian saw the laceration on her palm, his heart twisted and wrung itself into tangled knots.

Liu Bu trembled in humiliation as Yu Xuelan had bitten him like a rabbit chewing on their celery stalks.

The girl slowly stepped back and rubbed her lips, locking eye contact with the angered man. Yu Xuelan grinned at Liu Bu, which caused his face to flush in all shades of red, fuming from even more rage.

He yelled out, "GUARD! KILL THEM AL-!"

Badum.

Badum.

Badum.

Badum.

Liu Bu stepped back, his lips slowly growing cold, and exclaimed. "What? What's happening?!"

He clutched his chest tightly. His cold hands quivered and his grip on his fan loosened, forcing it to fall onto the ground.

Liu Bu's heart was racing, travelling all the way to his head, palpitating irregularly as if it was attempting to jump out of his body.

"You...! My chest! My, my chest!"

Nobody could help but look at the man like some crazy lunatic as he continued yelling. After being so confident and arrogant, he was now crouching and gasping for air, even though nothing had attacked him.

Yu Xuelan did not react to his call for help, except she just stayed silent and gazed down at him condescendingly.

"That's strange... What happened to him?" Feng Yi asked the white-clothed man. However, he also remained silent.

In Liu Bu's vision, everything slowed down and blur into one colour. His body would freeze, not moving an inch, but would suddenly tremble tremendously after a while.

His knees gradually weakened, and his entire body convulsed unnaturally. Yet, the irregular movements soon stopped.

Liu Bu had collapsed hard onto the ground, yet he still fixated his clouded gaze on the black-robed maiden who was subtly smiling, mouthing out a phrase.

Liu Bu felt all the warmth within him dry out. He watched Yu Xuelan's smile and mouth a phrase to him, like a mother sweetly telling their child something before bed.

Before a deep, deep, deep slumber.

Liu Bu instantly recognized something shocking, so shocking that it paralyzed him with immense fear. But before he could blurt anything out, his pupils rolled back, only revealing the sclera.

The bodyguard bit his lower lip and ran over to his senior, crouching down and shook the body many times.

"Sir, sir Liu? Sir Liu?" He stuttered anxiously while Yu Xuelan just lowered her gaze at the two yet still keeping her head facing straight forward.

"Is he okay? I think he died of a heart attack," Yu Xuelan worried sarcastically and strolled over.

Everyone's expressions went through countless changes, feeling rather surprised that such a sudden heart attack was bestowed upon the man at this time.

"Oh, to think he just died of a heart attack," Feng Yi muttered in disappointment.

The bodyguard continued to shake the lifeless body until he was certain that Liu Bu's pulse had fully stopped responding. He stood back took a few steps back, his blood filling with anxiety.

He clicked his tongue and attempted to run away while his movements staggered with each step he took.

Before a large distance between them was created, Yu Xuelan yanked him by his back collar and pulled him off his feet violently, throwing him across the floor.

She quickly seized his sword dripping in poison and examined the poison carefully while the man skidded down the hallway uncontrollably. Yu Xuelan rubbed her chin in amusement before dropping the sword down.

Wu Ming, who stood on the other end as the youth placed both of his palms together and let off a high pressured force, stopped the tripping body which ultimately rammed the man's face into the wooden ground.

A groan escaped his lips as the pain from the attack started setting in.

"Wu Zhitian. Your disciple is quite physically strong... Being able to lift such a muscular man. And Wu Ming too."

Wu Zhitian revealed a subtle smile and nodded.

Feng Yi was stunned, thinking to himself in disbelief that Wu Zhitian's lips could actually curve up, even though it was only slightly.

"Wow! Good job A-Ming!" Yu Xuelan laughed and skipped towards the young boy where they clapped both of their hands with each other.

Wu Ming giggled bashfully and exclaimed with pride, "That man thought he could escape my wrath? Impossible!"

Feng Yi slapped his face and didn't know whether if the two had made the situation better or worse. As always, Yu Xuelan could not care less about harming Yu Mingling's toys.

She bent down to the guard to see if the commandment note would react, but to her disappointment, it stayed silent. She sighed and slipped out a thin needle from her sleeve that she stole from Luo Ran's room a while back, lightly stabbing the back of the bodyguard's neck.

The girl smudged the small drop of blood with her finger and brought it to her lips.

In case I need you in the future...

Yu Xuelan turned around and saw Wu Zhitian walking towards her, his white sleeves fluttering with each step like the feathers of a bird on a windy day. She averted his gaze, afraid that she might've done something wrong. But instead, he tore off a piece of fabric from his robe and gently lifted her wrist, wrapping it around the bleeding wound.

Both Feng Yi and Yu Xuelan were speechless upon seeing his caring actions. After all, Feng Yi had never seen him touch anyone voluntarily since Yu Xuelan's death, and it surprised the girl that he didn't seem to be angry at her.

He finished wrapping the injury and gazed at the wound in guilt. Yu Xuelan didn't know why the boy's eyes were riddled with such sadness like it was his fault even though it was clearly her own actions.

She lowered her head and apologised, "Sorry."

"Please don't do anything rash," he said.

"But didn't you just blow off an entire wall and the floorboard?!" Feng Yi blurted in confusion, but Wu Zhitian pretended he did not hear his dear friend's comments.

The other cultivators of ShenMing Wu gathered around after hiding in their rooms. They stared at the two bodies that lied in the middle of the hallway in absolute confusion. One was dead, and the other was unconscious.

"Sect Master, what should we do with them?" Feng Yi asked.

Wu Zhitian pondered for a while and replied. "Throw the unconscious one in the prison chambers. Send the dead one back to Mingling,"

"What about our contract?"

"Is it really going to be broken off?"

"But didn't they threaten you?"

Upon being bombarded with all these questions, Wu Zhitian simply shook and nodded his head. Yet everybody understood what he meant.

"I have never seen our Sect Master talk so often in a day! Something is definitely wrong with him elder!" The senior cultivator exclaimed in shock.

Talk? He just nodded though??

"Well, if they come and invade the temple, we'll just blow them all away!" A senior added. "Wait, that means..."

"We're finally free from being ordered around by Liu Bu and that Yu Mingling!!" a girl screamed in delight.

"Hurry, hurry! Go burn the flags and throw them down the temple!"

"One of the flags better end up flying back to Mingling's lair!"

"Don't burn the flags," Wu Zhitian said quietly, yet his voice resonated throughout the temple, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Feng Yi understood what Wu Zhitian wanted and spoke, "Just pack them up and throw them down. Let the wind blow them to somewhere else."